Curated Call
Thomas C.
Chung
Thomas C. Chung is a Melbourne based Chinese-Australian contemporary artist devoting a lifelong conceptual practice to exploring the childlike psyche.
In the last several years he was invited to participate in the 2nd Land Art Biennial in Mongolia, 4th Ghetto Biennale in Haiti, 9th Shiryaevo Biennale in Russia, 1st Karachi Biennale in Pakistan, and The APS Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale in Malta. This year he was accepted for his second consecutive biennial in Mdina, Malta. His recent exhibitions have included The 40th Alice Prize, Araluen Arts Centre, Australia; The 65th Blake Prize, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Australia; Korea Through The Lens, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, South Korea; Central Russian Zen, National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Russia; YIA Art Fair #10, Basel Art Center, Switzerland.
Chung's past decade has seen him being awarded selected residencies to Kemijärvi (Finland), Gothenburg (Sweden), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Shanghai (China), Zürich (Switzerland), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Hohenstein (Germany), Chiang Mai (Thailand) and Sapporo (Japan). His work is included in public collections of The Swatch Group (Biel, Switzerland); Swatch Art Peace Hotel (Shanghai, China), National Centre for Contemporary Arts (Moscow, Russia); Sofia Arsenal Museum for Contemporary Art (Sofia, Bulgaria); Mongolian National Modern Art Gallery (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia); and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Seoul, South Korea), as well as various private collections in Australia and internationally.
This photographic image printed on poster paper is in response to the global pandemic. The installation is an amalgamation of my current workspace, carefully displaced, and photographed as digital artwork. Little mementos, toys reflecting upon childhood, books which hint of current interests, nutritional supplements for physical well-being, as well as protective symbols of love sprinkle the artwork, belying a protective face mask which sits in the corner.
Referencing my artistic research through psychotherapy, my interest in mental health through visual metaphors is emphasized in the artwork's title, "Don't Lose This......". Understanding the hidden traumas people carry within them each day, the lockdown has inadvertently intensified our daily struggles. Opposing the usual flair as seen in contemporary advertising, rather than promoting a symbol of strength and ambition, my concern is for humanity's welfare.
Thomas C. Chung
You can find more works by Thomas C. Chung here